Friday, January 20, 2017

Quick Reviews: The Call (2013)

After seeing this mentioned 1,000,000x on Raw (due to David Otunga being in it), I was less than enthused. When I realized that it was by the Director of The Machinist, I slowly warmed up to it...

Berry here is a 911 Operator who takes a fateful call of a Home Invasion.

Things seem to work out until she inadvertently gets the victim killed and she retreats for 6 months.

As 'luck' would have it, the Killer/Robber takes another victim and she's there (now Training) to stop it.

Incidentally, they reference the Security of the Call Center and it being 'The Hive,' but it has no bearing on the Film. When it was meant to be a Show, it might have mattered.

Can she save this young lady from her Call Center? Can the pair work together?

Will she have to go out on her own to save the day? Is this just Silence of the Lambs?

Will the killer have the last laugh after all? To find out, watch the Film.

Better than I expected. WWE Films is kind of an odd beast. For many of these Films, they have a big hand in them and usually affect the product negatively. That's how The Miz keeps Starring these things. Here's the other side of the coin though: sometimes they just put up the money with small strings attached. In this case, it is 'put David Otunga in and give him 4 lines.' Thank God they didn't go full-on with this and cast Naomi as the Lead or cast Heath Slater as the Killer. No, if you want both of them in a Movie, you'll have to wait until The Marine 5. Yes, there is going to be a 5th one! Just like the surprisingly-good Dead Man Down, the WWE affiliation is tertiary at best. This is by the same guy who did The Machinist, Session 9 and Sounds Like. He knows how to shoot and set Thrillers like this one. The worst thing I can say here is that the Plot doesn't stray too far from conventions. All in all, this is a Call worth picking up. Yes, I am going to hell for that. Speaking of Hell, what corner of it did the Prop Master dig up this Small Soldiers figure from?!?

Good, tense stuff that really makes the most of the concept. Just know that it gets a bit intense and dark pretty often.